Rhasaena - Home of the Legio III Parthica

224, Lot: 496. Estimate $100. Sold for $235. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

MESOPOTAMIA, Rhasaena. Trajan Decius. AD 249-251. Æ 16mm (3.06 g, 12h). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind / Vexillum inscribed L(egio)/III P(arthica) in two lines surmounted by eagle. Castelin, Rhesaena 151-6; BMC 36; SNG Copenhagen 252; SNG Hunterian 2470-1. Near VF, rough dark green patina, a few pits.

From the J.S. Wagner Collection.

Rhasaena was made a colony under Septimius Severus, when the Legio III Parthica was settled there.